Capital Murder Defendant Accused Of Assaulting Jail CO
TEXARKANA, Texas–A man facing a capital murder charge in the shooting death
last year of a dollar store clerk in Maud, Texas, is facing a new assault
charge for allegedly grabbing the breasts of a female correctional officer
while handcuffed earlier this month.
Keshawn Deiron Wickware, 28, allegedly assaulted the officer as she was
holding open a door for inmates the morning of Feb. 12 inside the Bowie
County jail annex in downtown Texarkana, according to a probable cause
affidavit. After grabbing the officer’s breasts, Wickware allegedly
attempted to grab her groin.
If convicted of the new charge of assault on a peace officer, Wickware
faces two to ten years in prison.
At a pretrial hearing Monday, Fifth District Judge Bill Miller scheduled
the murder case for a jury trial in November.
Wickware has been in custody since his arrest last year in the March 4,
2025, killing of 47-year-old Denyle Pierce at the Family Dollar store in
Maud.
Wickware was reportedly a regular customer who sometimes stopped in the
store multiple times a day, according to a probable cause affidavit. When
Wickware walked into the shop at 424 Broadway St. in Maud shortly before 8
p.m. on March 4, 2025, Pierce reportedly joked with Wickware, asking him
“if he was cold” because of the mask he was wearing.
Wickware allegedly ignored the joke, approached the counter and asked for
some Black and Mild cigars before pulling a black and silver handgun from
his pocket and pointing it at Pierce. Another employee on site allegedly
told officers that she believes Wickware pulled the trigger, fatally
shooting Pierce in the head, because she was too slow in opening the
register.
After fatally shooting Pierce, Wickware allegedly left empty-handed and
fired several shots upward into the air outside the front door before
making a getaway in a burnt orange SUV, turning onto Highway 8 in the
direction of Cass County.
As Wickware was well known to the store’s management and employees, they
were able to provide police with surveillance video from a few days before
that showed Wickware allegedly wearing the same jacket with a distinctive
insignia, the same jogger-style pants and the same tan-colored slide
sandals as he had worn during the shooting. While the employees knew
Wickware by sight, they were unable to provide investigators with his name.
A local citizen near the scene told officers that the description of the
man and vehicle they were looking for sounded like a person she knew who
lived less than a mile away in apartments in the 300 block of Ash Street.
Officers traveled to the apartments and located a 2024 burnt orange Buick
Encore parked outside.
Wickware was quickly apprehended from a unit at the apartments. He was
allegedly wearing the same jogger-style pants and slide sandals as in the
recording of the fatal shooting and a jacket with the same distinctive
insignia was allegedly recovered from his apartment.
Investigators also reportedly recovered a black and silver Taurus 9 mm
handgun from the residence.
Wickware also faces charges of attempted assault of a peace officer and
terroristic threat against a peace officer for an alleged incident in June
2024 at a local hospital.
Wickware is currently being held in Bowie County custody with bails
totaling $1.725 million.
Wickware is represented by Texarkana lawyer Jeff Harrelson.